A man in his 50s has been sentenced to eight years in prison for trying to shoot a police officer with the officer’s own gun while fleeing after a botched armed robbery in Ulsan, court officials said Thursday.
The Ulsan District Court convicted the man of attempted murder and attempted aggravated robbery involving a weapon.
In April, the man threatened a woman with a gun in a parking lot in Ulsan. He attempted to tie her up and steal her belongings but fled when she resisted.
Police later tracked him to a vacant lot in Ulsan’s Nam-gu district. During an attempt to arrest him, one of the officers dropped his service weapon.
The defendant picked up the gun and pulled the trigger, but it did not fire because the safety was engaged. The officer who had dropped the weapon subdued and arrested him.
The officer suffered minor injuries requiring two weeks of medical treatment.
“The defendant’s actions could have cost a police officer his life,” the court said. “Despite this, he offered implausible excuses during the trial, including claiming that he had picked up the gun to kill himself.”
The court said a lengthy prison sentence was warranted because the defendant had several previous convictions and committed the latest offenses while on probation following his release from prison.
He had recently served time for an offense related to illegal gambling. He had also been convicted of crimes including robbery resulting in injury, a sex offense and a violation of the Road Traffic Act.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
